Crash into the world's largest Buddha (Hong Kong)

I just wish we could have seen the final sidewalk crash. I give it a 9.5 for effort and 75.3 for dumbassness
 
Dirty Bird said:
Mal_PV2_Ireland said:
I'm more of a Confusious follower myself. Dont know what he would have had to say about it?

I think his words might have been, "OUCH!" :shock:

Yep, " Bird "
 
It must have had prop guards on. No way he doesn't break a prop on any of those building impacts.
 
my phantom arrives tomorrow, tonight ill start praying to buda :)

impressive!
 
pgaucher said:
Hello all,

A crazy thing happened to me yesterday. All this took place without me ever knowing about the crash into the world's largest sitting Buddha, located in Hong Kong. Here are the details.

1) The area is in a restricted air space due to its proximity of the Hong Kong International Airport. The altitude limitation was set automatically by the phantom at 120m. As a result, I could not elevate the phantom above 120m even if I tried.

2) I did a fly around of the statue and the line of sight was lost. This also triggered a loss of control signal as well as the FPV feed to the iPhone. As a result, the Phantom entered a failsafe mode and initiated an automatic return to home (RTH).

Problem is that the Phantom was directly behind the Buddha statue when the RTH function triggered, so guess what happened ... a head-on crash (literally) into the back of the Buddha head.

The link to the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEM4M45 ... e=youtu.be

What's amazing about this is that the Phantom completely self recovered after the crash and resumed flight as if nothing has happened. I therefore did not suspect anything had gone wrong because when the FPV resumed, everything was perfectly normal.

I continued flying the Phantom during the whole day in various areas around Hong Kong with no issues whatsoever and only learned about the crash when reviewing the footage when I went back home. I was completely shocked.

Needless to say, I learned a lot from this event and feel very bad about the whole thing as it could have lead to unfortunate outcome. Luckily it didn't.

This does however show how well built these things are and the incredible technology involved in order to completely stabilise the unit in mid-air after a hit. This is why we pay additional premium for the Phantom and also why we cope with the absence of after sales service from the company in certain areas.

Let me know your thoughts. I have not seen other videos like this before.
Interesting video... [emoji47]
Just curious, anyone notice that the drone lose signal at first attempt of flying behind the statue, while the second time flying behind it didn't trigger RTH.... did you walk around the Buddha after the first crash?
 
chluk2425 said:
Just curious, anyone notice that the drone lose signal at first attempt of flying behind the statue, while the second time flying behind it didn't trigger RTH.... did you walk around the Buddha after the first crash?

Looks like it was higher the second time around.
 
Dirty Bird said:
chluk2425 said:
Just curious, anyone notice that the drone lose signal at first attempt of flying behind the statue, while the second time flying behind it didn't trigger RTH.... did you walk around the Buddha after the first crash?

Looks like it was higher the second time around.
Yea... but if there's blockage in between... I thought it wouldn't "go through" either... [emoji47]
 
On the end off the video you can hear that the sound the props make is way different.
He uses a gopro because there is also sound provided.
As the article says the ( wanna be ) pilot is a musician i guess he's playing a cover on the remote singing " Fly baby fly ".
I hope for him he's better making music then flying.
 
Dirty Bird said:
chluk2425 said:
Just curious, anyone notice that the drone lose signal at first attempt of flying behind the statue, while the second time flying behind it didn't trigger RTH.... did you walk around the Buddha after the first crash?

Looks like it was higher the second time around.

The altitude restriction is automatically adjusted during the flight plan. In this case it varied between 10.5 to 120 meters (this was indicated on my screen). For some reason when flying in front of the statue, I could elevate just past the statue's head, but as I circled around the statue, it seems like the altitude was adjusted and lowered by a few meters which made the statue a clear obstacle.

Yes, the RTH did not trigger the second time around, but I was flying faster to avoid the loss connection. I actually did lose signal momentarily but it came back after crossing the head of the statue. That's why there was no RTH.
 
Dirty Bird said:
chluk2425 said:
Just curious, anyone notice that the drone lose signal at first attempt of flying behind the statue, while the second time flying behind it didn't trigger RTH.... did you walk around the Buddha after the first crash?

Looks like it was higher the second time around.

It was indeed higher up.
 
Great video & post!!

I've only just got mine and am still on the steep learning curve! Fantastic machine!

How is the 120m calculated? I've noticed that the altitude seems to be based on the home point, so if its higher up, then the actual altitude will be higher? So if you started the bird near the buddha, would you have been able to get above his head easily as it would be 120m from the base?

Thanks again for sharing!

Nick
 
Good question Nick, I have no idea. It is possible, however the indication on the iPhone screen mentioned being in a restricted air space (close to airport) so I don't think standing in a different location would have made a difference. If you try it out, let me know how things went. Cheers
 
I live on Lantau Island in Discovery Bay, and was surprised to find that the reservoir near the golf club is within the restricted zone. I wasn't warned but may not quite have breached the zone - but will definitely go & try it.

I was just interested as I climb to the top of the hill and have also flown down near the house, there is around 100 metres difference in altitude between the two locations and I was able to go to around 100m in both locations. I haven't flown much higher than that yet!!
 

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